Van vs Valkyrie

[Bummer_Duck]

Hi

Does anyone use Valkyries? and why would you? For 17% more gold it looks like Vans are better 2:1, at least according to Saber Cherries utility.

The only thing I can think of, is that there is a tactical advantage to flight that I am missing...

[Truper]

One of the things relatively tough flyers like Valkyries are good for is getting to a SC that relies on a lot of spell casting buffs before it can get all the buffs up.

In the early stages of the game, a squad of Valkyries set to attack archers can also be useful, for a similar reason - getting to and hopefully routing the archers before they can do much damage to your forces.

[Saber Cherry]

Yeah, valks can fly. I normally us vans, but against an AI... or a player that does not use enough bodyguards... Valkyries can kill all the leaders and mages and cause a rout without real combat. Too bad Vanheim has no flying leaders. You can't equip any of its holy leaders with flying boots, either... A Valkyrie Wing Commander would be a nice addition

[liga]

How can you tell Valkyrie (or someone in general) to attack leader and mages if they don't have bodyguard ? They just go fighting the squads and not to the leader ... is that true ?

liga

[Saber Cherry]

Use "hold and attack rear." The enemy squads will advance, leaving the leaders, mages, and archers unprotected at the rear, and then they will be surrounded by flying units and die... unless the enemy does something unexpected. But it usually works. I even got massacred by Mictlan Eagle Warriors (which are really weak) once because I was not expecting them, and my superior army routed with no leadership.

You can also do "attack archers" ... sometimes people hide their leaders in a block of archers.

[Arralen]

Saber Cherry said:
You can also do "attack archers" ... sometimes people hide their leaders in a block of archers.

What is an especially dumb idea. Even the AI brings along archers with ordes to "fire at archers" now and then ..

I always have at least some archers shooting at enemy archers. Archers root easily. Even better, if I can hit a commander which stands next or among them

[FrankTrollman]

What is an especially dumb idea

Well, it's usually no on purpose. If you give leaders no special orders, they will naturally migrate to stand in the rearmost squad towards the rear. Assuming for the moment that most or all of the melee units move forward, that leaves the archers in the rear, and unassigned leaders just accumulate there. That's why Neutrals almost always end up with Commanders in the rear of the crossbowmen block.

Interestingly, routed units don't count. If you "Fire Archers" yourself and chase away the enemy bowmen, the commanders will race forward to attempt to group with the infantry who are still moving forward. If you want to increase your kill count (or snag magic items held by enemy leaders), start with the archers and then move on to remaining forces.

-Frank

[The Panther]

The valkyrie is a pretty good national troop. Lots of nations would love to have a sacred and strong flying troop like that. Only Mictlan (that I can recall off the top of my head) has a sacred flying troop. But vans are SO strong that they are generally built instead. It is not really a fair comparison since the van is perhaps the single best national troop in the game for the unit cost.

As stated above, valkyries are best used as support troops on hold and attack rear. With a W9 or F9 bless, they wreak massive havok in enemy ranks and sometimes even fly right over the nasty advancing infantry. Also, most bodyguards don't stand much of a chance against a bunch of valkyries.

[Cainehill]

The Panther said:
With a W9 or F9 bless, [valkyries] wreak massive havok in enemy ranks and sometimes even fly right over the nasty advancing infantry. Also, most bodyguards don't stand much of a chance against a bunch of valkyries.

D10 is also an interesting bless to use with them, giving the valkyries an AoE fear effect which can be used to rout the enemy archers and other troops even more expiditiously.